Health Losing weight
Count your way
Gained a few pounds recently? Here’s how to get your figure back
slim
Let’s admit it. Most of us go overboard during Christmas and New Year when it comes to food and drink. Indeed, according to the British Dietetic Association, the average person in the UK might eat around 6,000 calories on Christmas day alone – that’s three times the number of calories you should eat if you’re a woman. So it’s no wonder many of us are a pound or five heavier now than we were at the beginning of December. Losing those festive pounds isn’t always so easy, however. And part
of the problem may be that there’s such a confusing choice of weight- loss methods on offer. Depending on which one you follow, there’s a good chance you’ll
have to count something – whether it’s fat, points, macros (short for macronutrients) or glycaemic index values. Some experts even recommend counting how many bites of food you have each day if you want to shed pounds. But when it comes down to it, there’s arguably no simpler method
than calorie or carbs counting. But what’s the difference between the two?
Calories Calories are units that measure the amount of energy in food. Your body needs a certain amount of that energy to function, plus the more active you are, the more energy you need. To lose weight steadily, you need to use more calories than you eat. Counting calories is easy, since food labels display how many
calories there are in 100g of a particular food, with many also giving the number of calories in a portion. Some restaurants also display calorie counts of meals on their menus, which can be useful if you’re eating out. You can also find out out more about how many calories are in the
food you eat by using an online calorie counter such as MyFitnessPal, which you can download to your smartphone for free.
Carbs Meanwhile many popular diets focus on managing your intake of carbohydrates (carbs). Carb counting can also be important if you have Type 1 diabetes, as it can help you to keep control of your blood glucose levels.
There are several different ways of counting
carbs, the simplest of which is to count them in grams. Food labels display how many carbs are in 100g or portion of a particular food, so you can calculate the carbs you’re eating, based on the weight of the food on your plate. As for the best approach, simply pick the
method you find the easiest, as a sustainable diet is better than one that gives quick results but fails in the long term. Want more tips on losing or maintaining your
weight? Visit
www.careway.co.uk/health- zone/weight-loss.
How many do you need?
According to the NHS, the number of calories you need daily to maintain your weight is:
2,500 if you’re a man 2,000 if you’re a woman
Unlike calories, there are no official guidelines to suggest how many grams of carbs you should eat a day. According to Dr Mike Roussell, author of The 6 Pillars of Nutrition – A Simple Diet Solution for Permanent Weight Loss, Better Health and a Longer Life, you can work out how many carb grams you should be eating each day if you want to lose weight by multiplying 0.9- 1.25 by each pound of body weight. For example, if you’re a woman who weighs
10st (140lb), you need 140g carbs a day (using 1g carb per pound of body weight).
All About health 21
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